Texts in Conversation
In Leviticus 23, God says that he will kill any who work on the Day of Atonement. In the Greek Septuagint, this is softened to a passive form saying that they will be destroyed but not naming who is responsible, removing the image of God killing someone.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Leviticus 23:30
Hebrew Bible
29 Indeed, any person who does not behave with humility on this particular day will be cut off from his people. 30 As for any person who does any work on this particular day, I will exterminate that person from the midst of his people— 31 you must not do any work! This is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all the places where you live.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
LXX Leviticus 23:30
Septuagint
29 Every soul that shall not be humbled in that day, shall be cut off from among its people. 30 And every soul which shall do work on that day, that soul shall be destroyed from among its people. 31 You shall do no manner of work: it is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your habitations.
Date: 300–201 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Cruelty in God ... In Leviticus 23:30 – the context of which has to do with the forbidding of any work on the day of atonement –, the active verb האבדתי ('I will destroy') is changed to the passive ἀπολεῖται ('will be destroyed'). This involves both accommodation to the context and the diminishment of God’s responsibility for the outcome ..."
Martin Meiser, The Septuagint and Its Reception: Collected Essays (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022), 21.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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